It is nothing new.

On 15 February, 2012 two unarmed fishermen were shot dead off the coast of Kerala by 2 marines aboard the Italian ship, the MV Enrica Lexie. The ship was impounded and the marines arrested on a charge of murder. The Italians first said that the marines were innocent because they thought the fishermen were pirates and then said that since the incident occurred in international waters the marines should be tried in Italy. On 18 April the government of India told the Supreme Court that Kerala Police were not empowered to detain the ship and that Kerala had no jurisdiction to probe the shooting because the crime was not committed in India's territorial waters. The Supreme Court was not amused, saying," We don't expect such a stand of the central government. It is unfortunate when persons killed on February 15 are within Indian territory." It is therefore surprising that the same court allowed the marines to go home to Italy to celebrate Christmas with friends and family and then again last month to vote in the Italian elections. Not surprising that the marines have now refused to return and Italy has shown its contempt for India by saying that it hopes to resolve issues in a " friendly " manner. Yesterday in Parliament our Fearless Leader warned Italy of " consequences " for " violating every rule of diplomatic discourse ". Really? What consequences are we talking about? Is he threatening members of the Italian government with death due to uncontrollable laughter? Did he not sign a memorandum on " bended knees " in Sharma al Sheikh on 16 July 2009 after the Mumbai massacre on 26 November 2008? But even this pales in comparison with the Bhopal disaster of 2-3 December 1984 when Warren Andersen, the chief of Union Carbide was personally escorted to his private plane by the then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. If all these are Congress crimes it is because the Congress or its stooges have been in power for 58 out of 64 years since independence. The BJP did not cover itself in glory in the 6 short years that it was in power. After the attack on our parliament on 13 December 2001 large numbers of soldiers were dispatched to the border with Pakistan but after huffing and puffing they returned home at great cost. Even worse the hijacked Indian Airlines flight number IC 814 was allowed to take off from Amritsar  Airport on 24 December 1999 and fly to Kandahar where one hostage was stabbed to death and several injured. Contrast this with the treatment of Indian citizens at Kudankulum where 6800 have been charged with " sedition " and " waging war against the state " for peacefully protesting against a nuclear power plant. Telecom companies have been fined Rs 28 billion for issuing 1.9 million SIM cards against forged identity papers because they want to keep tabs on citizens. Our politicians have been waging war against us while supping with our enemies. It is definitely nothing new.